As a writer and blogger, Calvin set the bar for me years ago. His moving tribute to his late wife "About Alice" is perhaps the finest memoir I've ever read. Bourdain (who I've met) showed me how to be funny and sharp about cooking in a single sentence, and A.J. Leibling moved me to keep it literary; plus Keith Floyd will always have a special place in my heart because he liked the Stranglers' "Waltzinblack."

In fact the ball is picked up and thrown far more often in soccer than it is kicked in American "football". You don't get six points for a goal. And you don't get three points for every corner kick taken. American "football" amounts to 5 seconds of action followed by 30 seconds of chit chat---and then everyone runs into each other.
Above all it is the one game the whole world plays under the same rules unless you count badminton or something exciting like that.